Similarly to last year, registrations will be open for TWO WEEKS (November 10 until November 24) and there will be no extensions! Make sure you get in and sign up as early as possible and don’t forget to spread the word!

We’ll send everyone who played last year an email the day before we open registrations, just so everyone knows!

This year, we’ve changed up the way we approach the Bad Santa Gift Stash, as well – we’ve got a TON of awesome sponsors who have given us stuff from vouchers to brownie makers, T-Shirts to Chromecasts for free – check out some of the awesome folks involved over at https://nzsecretsanta.nzpost.co.nz/sponsors.

There’s a few new things this year, which you’ll come across after signing up, but one thing we can talk about now is……….

Matching magic

There’s a super complex algorithm that takes care of the randomisation and matching of players when that time comes around. This year, we made it slightly more complex and even more algorithmic (it’s a word, we swear) to match players with more persuasion based on the history of the player. This includes, but is not limited to:

Played in previous years or has never played

Been a Good or Bad Santa in previous years

Has been a Super Secret Santa in previous years

And, with the hope that more folks will use tracking:

Has tracked their parcel to Santa’s Storehouse in previous years

All of these factors, and more, will contribute to the matching process with a view (hope) that the groups of players being matched will be more similar in their history, allowing Consistently Good Santas to be matched with such and New Santas to be matched with New Santas.

As much as we’re not trying to ‘play God’ here; we recognise the fact that a significant number of long-time players have expressed outrage over us not restricting sign-ups based on Tweet count and Protected Account status. We hope this will go some way to assuaging these concerns.

Finally…for now…

Community spirit and being a “Good Santa”

We feel this is a good time to remind everyone about the ‘Rules of the game’ both written (here: https://nzsecretsanta.nzpost.co.nz/#about) and unwritten. More so, the unwritten rules look something like this (making them written, I guess…):

Don’t be an egg

Don’t judge people based on their lifestyle, occupation or how they interact on Twitter

Signing up to #nzsecretsanta means you’re committing to buying a gift for a stranger – if you’re not sure that you’ll be able to cope with some of the diverse people that inhabit the NZ Twittersphere, let us know who, specifically, you won’t feel comfortable buying for BEFORE November 24th and we’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen

Be grateful for what you get, even if it’s not something you want/like/will use/can re-gift. The main purpose of #nzsecretsanta is to *give* a gift. Obviously it follows that you’ll also receive one, but we come at this thing from the angle of “Giving makes the world go around” and think everyone else should; too.

As usual, if you have questions, concerns or just want to yell at us because we’re destroying your favorite thing, please get in touch – @nzsecretsanta on Twitter or nzsecretsanta@nzpost.co.nz if you want to chat in longer-form.

Happy Wednesday (unless you’re reading this on _any_ other day, then Happy That Day)!